Nytiya Allen

4/1/15

Language Arts

8­2

The Pit and the Pendulum Literary Analysis Despite the lurid descriptions and the mental torture, Poe gives us a sense of hope in "The Pit and the Pendulum" because despite the consequences the prisoner is facing he never gives up. In the last paragraph of the story the prisoner is saved by the French; throughout the story it justifies the hope that characterizes his fight to stay alive. In the story the prisoner's fear is that he either knows nothing about what will happen to him or he does know the exact situation of his own fate but can't do anything about it. When he tripped and he realized there was a pit in the room, he had no idea what was down there. Poe's use of sensory details can strike fear into the reader because different senses like the smell of fungus or the sound of the pendulum can make the reader feel scared; kind of like when someone is watching a horror movie. Poe uses sensory details to describe the slime on the floor, the scratching of the rats, the pungent smells throughout the dungeon, and the sound of the swinging swinging pendulum that sets the mood. In the text it states, "The odor of the sharp steel forced itself into my nostrils". This can give the reader a thought in their brain about the cell. This story is portrayed in a dark and dreary way so it can seem more mysterious. When imagining a dungeon we think about evil, old, dark, etc and that is exactly what sets the mood. On page 7 it says, "Moreover, my dungeon, as well as all the condemned cells at Toledo, had stone floors, and light was not

altogether excluded". This setting can draw the reader in so he can let the readers paint a picture in their head. The reader can relate and feel to how the character is feeling and how the character is acting towards it's environment. Poe uses the setting to build suspense in the story because we have no clue what crimes the character may have committed. When he's in the room with the pendulum we have no idea what is going to happen to him, will he die? Will he live? When he's in the room with the pit he describes the smell. It states, "At the same time my forehead seemed bathed in a clammy vapor, and the peculiar smell of decayed fungus arose to my nostrils I put forward my arm". These different senses that the character is